Arborists Dan Coffin, with Heartwood Tree and Landscape solutions of Mahomet, left, and Jeff Palmer, with Arborjet in Minnesota, treat Illinois' largest green ash tree in Clinton, Ill. to protect it from the emerald ash borer, the invasive metallic green beetle that's killed millions of trees across the Midwest, on Monday, July 15, 2013. At 91 feet high and 83 feet in diameter, the tree is estimated to be between 150-175 years old. less

Arborists Dan Coffin, with Heartwood Tree and Landscape solutions of Mahomet, left, and Jeff Palmer, with Arborjet in Minnesota, treat Illinois' largest green ash tree in Clinton, Ill. to protect it from the ... more

Photo: The Pantagraph, Lori Ann Cooke-Neisler

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Arborists Dan Coffin, with Heartwood Tree and Landscape solutions of Mahomet, right, and Jeff Palmer, with Arborjet in Minnesota, treat Illinois' largest green ash tree in Clinton, Ill. to protect it from the emerald ash borer, the invasive metallic green beetle that's killed millions of trees across the Midwest, on Monday, July 15, 2013. At 91 feet high and 83 feet in diameter, the tree is estimated to be between 150-175 years old. less

Arborists Dan Coffin, with Heartwood Tree and Landscape solutions of Mahomet, right, and Jeff Palmer, with Arborjet in Minnesota, treat Illinois' largest green ash tree in Clinton, Ill. to protect it from the ... more

Photo: The Pantagraph, Lori Ann Cooke-Neisler

Destructive emerald ash borer found in Sherman

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SHERMAN -- The emerald ash borer -- a brilliant green beetle that's devastated ash trees throughout the United States -- has been found in Veteran's Park here.

It's the first time the borer has been found in Fairfield County. It's been detected in nine towns in northern New Haven County, beginning in 2012.

The discovery will lead -- as it has in New Haven County -- to a quarantine of firewood in Fairfield County, with no ash logs, ash materials, ash nursery stock or hardwood firewood permitted to be trucked from the county.

The beetle can hitch a ride on trucks carrying such wood produces, leading to the insect's spread.

The borer is native to Russia, China, Japan and Korea. Researchers found it in Michigan in 2002. It has since spread in the United States and Canada -- as far west as Kansas and Missouri, as far north as Quebec, as far south as Tennessee -- killing millions of ash trees.

Along with Connecticut, the borer has been found in Duchess and Putnam counties in New York and Berkshire County in Massachusetts.

Claire Rutledge, an entomologist with the experiment station, identified the beetle last week. The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the find.

Rutledge studies sand wasps -- small, non-stinging native wasps that like to build nests in sandy, compacted soil in a field surrounded by trees.

"It turns out ballfields are wonderful habitat for them,'' she said.

The female wasps go out, kill beetles, then cache them in their nests to create a store of food for their larvae.

Rutledge and a team of citizens check about 200 of the nests in hopes of finding emerald ash borers.

Both Stafford and Rutledge acknowledged Friday they were surprised to find the beetle in Sherman. Because of the cluster of towns where it's been found in northern New Haven County, Stafford said he would have guessed they would have found the beetle next in either Litchfield or Middlesex counties.

The discovery, Rutledge said, could mean that there's an unbroken infestation that stretches from Sherman south and east to New Haven County -- and that people simply haven't found the connecting links -- or that there are two separate infestations occurring in the state simultaneously.

Stafford said that before the state imposes a quarantine, it will hold a hearing somewhere in Fairfield County to let the public comment on any proposed plan of action.

Worthley of the extension service said the state will feel the loss of the ash trees in several ways.

"It's very useful," he said of the straight-grained wood of the tree. "It's easy to dry and it looks very nice when it's polished."

And one study shows that 470 species of insects and birds depend on ash trees for at least part of their life cycle.